Chelsea's parents return for annual run

San Diego  Brent, Kelly King and their son Tyler are back in San Diego this weekend preparing for the third annual Finish Chelsea’s Run, an event they wish had never been needed but one that fills them with love for the community.

More than 5,500 people are expected to participate Saturday at Balboa Park. The event began about a month after the Kings’ daughter, Chelsea, was abducted, raped and murdered by a convicted sexual predator the afternoon of Feb. 25, 2010. Chelsea, 17, who competed in cross country at Poway High, had been out for run at Rancho Bernardo Community Park School when she was attacked.

About 3,500 people showed up at that park to finish Chelsea’s run on March 20 that year. Last year, the event was moved to Balboa Park to accommodate the growing crowds.

Proceeds from the event go toward Chelsea’s Light Foundation, which awards scholarships to San Diego County teens, and to help spread key elements of Chelsea’s Law to other states.

On Thursday the Kings, who now live in Illinois, met with U-T San Diego. They said returning to the area is both wonderful and difficult.

“We got in town late last night, 10:15, 10:30, and Ty and I were hungry,” Brent King said. They went to a restaurant, and the waitress noticed the orange Chelseas’s Light Foundation band around Brent’s left wrist.

She asked if he was Chelsea’s dad.

“She told me she was coming to the race with her two daughters. Her husband searched for Chelsea.” (Thousands looked for her during the five days separating her disappearance and the discovery of her remains by the Lake Hodges shore.)

“How do you say thank you to that?” Brent asked. “This is how we do it. The way the community embraced us and continues to embrace us. ... It fills us back up.”

“It’s almost like a partial life-sustaining force that we only get when we come back out here,” Kelly added. “We take that, and it carries us a long way.”

But it is still difficult. Brent King said he still can’t make himself drive over the Lake Hodges bridge.

On Monday, he posted a statement on the third anniversary of his daughter’s death. To some it seemed chilling, but the couple said it’s just the truth they live with every day.

“People often say that time heals all wounds,” Brent wrote. “They are wrong. You learn to live with the wound, but it never heals. It has been 3 years since I have heard her voice, smelled her scent, or felt her hug. The coward that shattered our world will someday rot in hell. Until then he is locked away forever without the possibility of parole. He should have never been released in the first place to harm Amber or Chelsea. With the law we passed in California, we have insured that it won’t happen again. We need this law in every state, and can only do it with your voice. ...”